Chowdhury
A South Asian surname and honorific title meaning a landholder or local headman, now widely used as a family name.
The #2,997 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 25,813 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Chowdhury is a South Asian surname that began as a title rather than a fixed family name. It is generally traced to a word meaning a chief, headman, or landholder, often explained as coming through Persian and related Indo-Aryan usage. In many regions it came to be inherited as a surname by families associated with local status, administration, or landownership.
History
The title was used across parts of Bengal and the wider Indian subcontinent, especially in areas influenced by Persianate administrative culture. Over time it became hereditary in many families and spread as a surname among Bengali, Indian, and Bangladeshi communities. Spelling varies because the name is transliterated from South Asian languages into the Latin alphabet in more than one way.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is one of several South Asian family names that began as a rank or title and only later became hereditary.